Thomas Hudner and Jesse Brown

US Navy Corsair Pilots, Heroes of the Korean War

Flying one thousand feet above the icy Korean
mountains, the Corsair's
engine cut out. At such a low altitude, the pilot, US Navy Ensign Jesse
Brown, couldn't bail out or clear the mountain. He spotted an opening
that looked more or less flat, and in any case, it was his only choice.
A wheels up, dead stick landing. The Navy's first African American
aviator probably thought that he had been through worse than this,
being hazed and harassed throughout his pioneering Naval career.

The F4U went down heavily and
smashed into the rough terrain, folding
up at the cockpit. Sliding through the deep snow, the big fighter
started smoking immediately.

Lt. (Jg) Thomas Hudner and the other VF-32 pilots
studied the situation on the ground as they circled overhead. This
close to the Chosin Reservoir, Chinese Communist soldiers would be
along soon. The crashed and burning aircraft was a hopeless wreck. At
first the Navy fliers thought that Ensign Brown was dead. Then his
wingman and roommate, Lt. William H. Koenig, noticed Brown waving to
them through the open canopy of his Corsair (Bureau # 97231). A rugged,
prop-driven, big-nosed WWII design, the Chance Vought F4U normally
could take a lot of damage. On this day, 4 December 1950, Brown had
been tragically unlucky; some North Korean flak gunner had hit the
plane in a vulnerable spot.

Flight Leader Richard L. Cevoli radioed "Mayday" and
called for helicopter rescue. A Sikorsky HO3S helicopter was
dispatched, but would take at least 15 minutes to reach the stricken
flier. Lt. Hudner looked down at his friend and flying mate. He
promptly decided to go down and try to pull Brown out the smoldering
aircraft. Hopefully, both pilots could then escape on the chopper.

Hudner made one more tree-top pass and dumped his
remaining fuel and ordnance. He dropped flaps and tailhook, and thumped
the Corsair onto the ground. He hit a lot harder than he had expected.
At 6,000 feet above sea level, the Corsairs' air speed indicator had
understated the actual speed. Hudner began to wonder if this had been
such a good idea.

"I knew what I had to do," said Hudner in
an interview
by Frank Geary, for Jax
Air News, the Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla.,
base newspaper. "I was not going to leave him down there
for the Chinese. Besides, it was 30 degrees below zero on
that slope, and he was a fellow aviator. My association
with the Marines had rubbed off on me. They don't leave
wounded Marines behind." Hudner tightened his harness and, with his
wheels up,
set his Corsair down onto the snow and rocks some 100 yards
from Brown's smoking aircraft. "He was alive, but barely, when I got
onto his wing and
tried to lift him out of the cockpit. But his right leg was
crushed and entangled in metal and instruments. I hurried
back and requested a rescue helo, making sure it would bring
an ax and a fire extinguisher. When I got back to Brown, I
began packing snow around the smoking cowling. "When a two-man Marine
helicopter arrived with only its
pilot, the ax he carried proved useless in our efforts to
hack away the metal entrapping Brown's leg. He was going in
and out of consciousness and losing blood. "The helo pilot and I, in
our emotion and panic, and
with the light of day fading, discussed using a knife to cut
off Jesse's entrapped leg. Neither of us really could have
done it, and it was obvious Jesse was dying. He was beyond
help at that point. The helo pilot said we had to leave.
Darkness was setting in and we'd never get out after dark,"
said Hudner. "We had no choice but to leave him. I was
devastated emotionally. In those seconds of our indecision,
Jesse died."

Thomas J. Hudner, Jr.

He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts on 31 August 1924, and attended
the prestigious prep school, Phillips Academy in Andover. After
graduation from the US Naval Academy in 1946, Hudner served aboard USS
Helena off the China coast as a signal officer before being
assigned to CINCPAC staff for a year in Pearl Harbor. Bored with his
job, he applied for flight training at. In April
1948 he entered Naval flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida.
Advanced flight training
in the F4U-4 Corsair followed at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, where he
received his
"Wings of Gold" in 1949.

Jesse L. Brown

He was born on 13 October 1926 in Hattiesburg,
Mississippi. He grew up in Hattiesburg, the son of a sharecropper.
Brown wanted to attend Ohio State University, in part because the
famous Olympic athlete, Jesse Owens, had gone there. Despite advice
that he select a Negro college, he applied and was accepted to OSU.
While at OSU, and later at Pensacola, he encountered racist resistance
to an African-American studying aeronautics and aviation. Nonetheless,
of 100 candidates who started the program at Pensacola, he was one of
only six to complete it.

He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on 8 July
1946, and on 15 April 1947 he accepted an appointment as a midshipman
in the U.S. Navy. He attended the Navy pre-flight school in Ottumwa,
Iowa, followed by flight training at Pensacola and Jacksonville, FL.

VF-32

In 1948, Brown began a tour of duty with VF-32 at
Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and was commissioned an Ensign on 15 April
of that year.
About a year later, Brown met a new pilot named Thomas J. Hudner, a
graduate of Phillip's Academy and the US Naval Academy, and also the
son of successful Massachusetts business owner.

Brown and Hudner were soon flying together. Despite
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Hudner's higher rank, Navy policy set flying
assignments based on experience, and Ensign Brown had more hours.
Hudner was assigned to be Brown's wingman and found Brown a patient and
disciplined pilot. But off duty, the two aviators didn't socialize
much. In the early Fifties, all the bachelor officers hung out at the
Offciers' Club. Brown was married, and like most of the married
officers, spent his free time with his family.
In June 1950, VF-32 was operating from USS Leyte (CV-32) in the
Mediterranean on a routine cruise but was soon diverted to the Korean
peninsula when the war started. In October 1950, Leyte joined
Fast Carrier Task Force 77 in support of the United Nations Forces in
Korea. Soon Hudner and Brown were flying F4U-4 Corsair missions from Leyte.

As a pilot of Fighter Squadron 32, Ensign Brown
became a section leader and received the Air Medal for daring attacks
against the enemy at Wonsan, Chongjin, Songjin, and Sinanju. Leading
his section in the face of hostile anti-aircraft fire, he courageously
pressed home attacks that inflicted heavy losses on the enemy and
provided effective support for friendly ground troops.

11/30/50: Commenced maximum effort close support
missions in the Chosin Reservoir area. This was the first day of five
continuous maximum effort close support missions in this area in
support of ground troops encircled by Chinese Communist troops. 90
sorties were flown on this date.

On December 4, both pilots were part of a formation
of eight Corsairs flying armed reconnaissance patrols near the Chosin
Reservoir. "We'd fly around and look for targets of opportunity,"
Hudner said later. "We didn't have predesignated targets, but if we saw
military equipment, trucks, or troops, we'd destroy them with rockets
or our .50-caliber guns. We were high enough to see fairly well ahead,
but low enough to see objects and people on the ground. It was very
mountainous in that area and we didn't want to go too low. A lot of our
planes came back to the ship with small-caliber holes in the wings and
fuselage."

Hudner and Brown were at about 1,000 feet when Brown
radioed that he was losing oil pressure. "We think it was an oil line
that got hit-somebody just got a lucky shot," Hudner said. He
crash-landed his plane alongside the wreckage of Ensign Brown's
aircraft in a heroic rescue attempt. Despite Captain Hudner's efforts,
Brown perished in the wreckage of his plane.

The next day four Corsairs from Leyte flew
over Ensign Brown's plane, and in tribute to a fallen comrade, napalmed
the wreckage. The location is Latitude 40 degrees, 36 minutes N;
Longitude 127 degrees, 6 minutes East. He was posthumously awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross for his exceptional courage, airmanship, and
devotion to duty in the face of great danger.

On April 13, 1951, President Harry Truman presented
Hudner with the Medal of Honor in a simple ceremony that included Daisy
Brown, Jesse Brown's widow. Despite their different backgrounds, Hudner
and Brown had been drawn together by a simple, but powerful
brotherhood-a bond graced by a singular and courageous act.

Medal of Honor Citation

Lieutenant
(j.g.) Thomas Jerome Hudner, Jr.,United States Navy

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at
the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a pilot in
Fighter Squadron 32, while attempting to rescue a squadron mate whose
plane struck by antiaircraft fire and trailing smoke, was forced down
behind enemy lines. Quickly maneuvering to circle the downed pilot and
protect him from enemy troops infesting the area, Lt. (j.g.) Hudner
risked his life to save the injured flier who was trapped alive in the
burning wreckage. Fully aware of the extreme danger in landing on the
rough mountainous terrain and the scant hope of escape or survival in
subzero temperature, he put his plane down skillfully in a deliberate
wheels-up landing in the presence of enemy troops. With his bare hands,
he packed the fuselage with snow to keep the flames away from the pilot
and struggled to pull him free. Unsuccessful in this, he returned to
his crashed aircraft and radioed other airborne planes, requesting that
a helicopter be dispatched with an ax and fire extinguisher. He then
remained on the spot despite the continuing danger from enemy action
and, with the assistance of the rescue pilot, renewed a desperate but
unavailing battle against time, cold, and flames. Lt. (j.g.) Hudner's
exceptionally valiant action and selfless devotion to a shipmate
sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

Hudner's later career

Lieutenant (j.g.)
Hudner flew 27 combat missions from the Leyte during 4 months
of brutal Korean
winter in late 1950 and early 1951.

Following his combat tour, he pursued an outstanding
career in US Naval Aviation:

1951 - Instrument flight instructor at NAS Corpus
Christi

Staff tour with Commander Carrier Division 3 in
the Pacific

Flying jets with Air Development Squadron, VX-3,
at NAS Atlantic City

October 1957 - 2 year exchange program with the
USAF. Flying F-94 Starfire and F-101 Voodoo with the 60th Fighter
Interceptor Squadron at Otis AFB, Mass.

1960 - Aide to the Chief of the Bureau of Naval
Weapons

1962 - Air War College at Maxwell AFB

July 1963 - Flying duty in the F-8E Crusader, as
the Executive Officer
of VF-53 on carrier USS Ticonderoga

Leadership Training Officer for the COMNAVAIRPAC
staff

Commanding Officer of VT-24, at NAS Chase Field,
Texas

March 1966 - on the carrier USS Kitty Hawk
as Navigator and then as Executive Officer

1968 - J-3 Action Officer for Southeast Asia Air
Operations at the Pentagon

Technical Training Officer on the staff of the
Chief of Naval Operations

Captain Hudner retired from the Navy in 1973, and
was commissioner of veterans affairs for the state of Massachusetts.

USS Jesse L. Brown

In 1973, the United States Navy honored Ensign Brown
by naming a frigate after him, the USS JESSE L. BROWN (FFT-1089).
Captain Hudner stood beside Daisy Brown when the ship slid down the
ways.

In 1994, it was decommissioned and sold to Egypt.
Brown’s flying companion, retired Capt. Thomas Hudner, decried the sale
and the neglect of Brown’s story, saying, "We need everything we can in
race relations."

Sources and Recommended Books:

U.S.
Naval Historical Center - a fascinating on-line resource, with
photos of Hudner, Brown, and others, and many other articles on naval
aviation history